N.H. delegation needs to halt Obama policies

By Sean Mahoney

seacoastonline.com

Writer

Posted Aug. 30, 2009 at 2:00 AM

Posted Aug. 30, 2009 at 2:00 AM

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By Sean Mahoney

In early February, President Barack Obama warned that a failure to pass his economic recovery package would "turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession." Days later, the Democratic Party-controlled Congress followed his lead and approved a budget-busting $787 billion stimulus package designed to bring our nation back from the precipice.

Since then more than 2 million Americans have lost their jobs. Unemployment, which the stimulus was supposed to cap at 8.5 percent, has jumped to nearly 9.5 percent. And while recent statistics have shown some signs of improvement in this area, they have also corresponded with an ever shrinking labor force — meaning thousands of Americans have simply given up the job hunt.

The few jobs the stimulus has saved or created have cost taxpayers a pretty penny. In New Hampshire, for example, the Union Leader reported an influx of more than $400 million resulted in only 34 full-time jobs. An average cost of more than $1.2 million each!

More broadly, signs of the stimulus' failure are apparent throughout the economy. The country's gross domestic product has fallen for four successive quarters — the first time that has ever occurred. Consumer spending, a vital economic indicator, fell 1.2 percent from April though June. Both residential and business investment tailed off sharply during the first half of the year.

These numbers are not signs of a catastrophe averted. Further, by promising government bailouts for favored industries and wealth transfers to struggling individuals, the Obama administration is setting us up for a prolonged period of economic difficultly even if these economic indicators begin to improve.

In the years to come, the bills for the proposed massive government expansion are going to come due. Since cutting spending, with the odd exception of national defense funding, does not appear to be an option conceivable to our current crop of elected officials, the president is going to have to make some tough choices.

He can of course direct the Treasury to print more money. Yet even the most basic understanding of economics instructs that this would lead to nothing but further inflation or, if coupled with a continued lag in the rest of the economy, the stagflation that economists have warned of since the start of this spending spree.

Polls show fewer than 20 percent of Americans believe raising taxes can assist the economy. The president recognizes this and, though he is willing to impose tax hikes on small businesses and higher wage earners, he has promised middle class voters they will not see their tax bill increase "one single dime." However, as push has come to shove in recent days, two of the president's closest advisers have hesitated to rule out a broad middle class tax increase. When given the opportunity to do so, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner offered only, "We're going to have to do what's necessary." A telling response.

For now, though, Democrats appear content to simply borrow their way from one problem to the next. After racking up a $2 trillion deficit for 2009 alone, the administration plans to add another $5 trillion to that tab by 2016. Over the next decade, under Obama's policies and by his own admission, the nation's publicly held debt will double to $15.4 trillion.

Our representatives in Congress must seriously consider cancelling the rest of the stimulus and scaling back their aggressive march towards an omnipresent national government. If they decide against that course of action, they need to honestly explain how they, and generations of Americans, intend to pay for their policy decisions.

Sean Mahoney is a resident of Portsmouth and publisher of BusinessNH Magazine.